4 ms·

For what it's worth, I'm in France and it's common knowledge here that China invented gunpowder. I don't think I've ever heard someone saying Europe did.

• jacobush 10y ago
  But Europe was the first to do CANNONS on a large scale...
  • oelmekki 10y ago
    Oh, yeah. Now you're mentioning it, "China invented gunpowder" is often followed by "but they used it only for fireworks".
    • funkyy 10y ago
      Polish here. We learn in schools that Chinese invented gunpowder - period. Few more things we learn about them and Arabs as well.
• tpeo 10y ago
  Apparently, back in the 19th century people credited Berthold Schwarz [0] with the inventiom of gunpowder. I remember reading Beyond Good and Evil and reading in the preface that "the Germans invented gunpowder" and being rather puzzled, but it turns out that that was considered a fact at the time. Though I wouldn't be surprised if gunpowder was discovered independently in Europe, or at least partly so because nobody walked out of China with a recipe for it. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Schwarz https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Schwarz
• 27182818284 10y ago
  It is pretty common in the US too... The US is a big country, results vary wildly. Taking a straw poll of the office everyone replied "China" as the inventor.